Archives

400-408 – This is either good or bad.If it's good, how can we encourage more of it, how can we subsidize it?If it's bad, how can we discourage it, how can we tax it?Who do you think deserves the credit or the blame?Who's responsible?The kids, their parents, the school, the government, the media, the system, the "values free" sex ed policy?Are we already encouraging this behavior?

The mother is Chantelle Steadman, 15, and their newborn daughter is Maisie Roxanne.Alfie claims they had unprotected sex just once.Chantelle and Maisie will live with her parents and her five brothers in a rented house – the dad is unemployed and their living on welfare.Alfie lives with his dad who is currently separated from Alfie's mother.Alfie's father has fathered nine children.

The patient, who is in her late 40s, wanted one baby. Dr. Michael Kamrava transferred at least seven embryos to her.She is now hospitalized without insurance at County-USC Medical Center.

• "Historically, we have been very hesitant to regulate anything close to procreation from parents making judgments about how many children they will have and when," said Kirk O. Hanson, ethics professor and executive director of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University."However, that worked under a natural process of fertilization and incubation. There are serious questions about whether it works in an era of scientifically enhanced procreation."

• The woman has three grown children from a previous marriage but wanted another child with her second husband, who is in his early 30s and doesn't have any children, sources said. She works as an apartment manager; her husband is a contractor.She started fertility treatments seeking one baby, but after becoming pregnant with quadruplets, declined medical advice to reduce the number of fetuses, the sources said.

Nearly a third of in vitro births involve twins or more. The government, along with professional associations, have been pushing fertility doctors to reduce that number, citing the disastrous health consequences that sometimes come with multiple births — infant mortality, low birth weights, long-term disabilities and thousands of dollars' worth of medical care.

The American Society for Reproductive Medicine, the association of fertility doctors, even adopted guidelines in 2008 encouraging the transfer of only one embryo for women under 35, and no more than two, except in extraordinary circumstances. The guidelines allow more for older women, up to a maximum of five.

Only 11 percent of in vitro procedures in the United States involve single embryos, according to 2006 data from the C.D.C.

The industry has doubled in size in the decade since the C.D.C. started collecting data in 1996. That year, 64,681 procedures were performed in 330 clinics. At last count, the number of procedures was up to 134,260 and there were more than 483 clinics across the country. More than 50,000 children a year are born as a result of in vitro fertilization in the United States. Nationwide, it is a more than $1 billion business.

They revealed that Dr. Kamrava's clinic had one of the nation's highest rates of embryo transfer in younger women — 3.5 versus a national average of 2.3. Such high embryo-transfer rates are sometimes an indication that a doctor is being too aggressive in trying to raise the number of pregnancies. In Dr. Kamrava's case, however, those numbers were among the lowest in the nation. Of 56 procedures performed by his clinic in 2006, only two resulted in women giving birth, one to a single baby and the other to twins. The twins may have been the set born to Ms. Suleman that year.

413-423 – Calls.How much are you willing to take away from your own family in order to give it to women who intentionally have children they can't pay for?

428-437 – I predict that we will soon be rationing health care for the elderly, because they're care is too expensive and they no longer contribute to the economy.And, we will soon be encouraging more out of wedlock births, albeit indirectly, because we'll need more workers to grow our economy about mid-century when global population begins declining.

458-508 – Paula Friedrichsen, is a popular conference speaker and the author of The Man You Always Wanted Is The One You Already Have.She and her husband of 25 years, Jeff, have two children and live in Bishop, California.She shares the story of what happened when she began flirting with her pastor (pfministries.com).She learned the hard way, after many people got hurt, that the man I always wanted was the one I already had!

512-523 – Paula Friedrichsen

528-538 – Kim Weir, with Engaging Women Ministries in Texas (engagingwomen.com), on things do to for Valentine's Day tomorrow.

544-554 – What's the advice you have for Valentine's Day?The worst gift, the best gift?

558-608 – Calls

612-623 – Calls

628-638 – Calls.

644-655 – • (:34) BP&DS FD 1, Bill Press interviews Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow on his morning show Thursday Feb. 5, whose husband is Tom Athans, founder of the now defunct liberal radio network Democracy Now and an executive with Air America, the left-wing radio network, on the need to reinstate The Fairness Doctrine.Here's the beginning of the interview.

• (1:39) BP&DS FD 2, Stabenow answers.

• (:49) BP&DS FD 3, Stabenow says she's hoping for hearings this year on the Fairness Doctrine.PRESS: Is it time to bring back the Fairness Doctrine?STABENOW: I think it's absolutely time to pass a standard. Now, whether it's called the Fairness Standard, whether it's called something else – I absolutely think it's time to be bringing accountability to the airwaves. I mean, our new president has talked rightly about accountability and transparency. You know, that we all have to step up and be responsible. And, I think in this case, there needs to be some accountability and standards put in place.PRESS: Can we count on you to push for some hearings in the United States Senate this year, to bring these owners in and hold them accountable?STABENOW: I have already had some discussions with colleagues and, you know, I feel like that's gonna happen. Yep.